Like Father, Like Daughter For Charlie And Kelsey Simonds At Stonehill College 

Despite missing six games this season with an injury, Kelsey Simonds was named Northeast-10 First-Team All-Conference for the second consecutive season.

By Jim Fenton, Brockton Enterprise Staff Writer

EASTON - The father reached the Stonehill College basketball milestone at the end of his senior year in the 1976-77 season.

The daughter joined her father in the school's 1,000-point club this past New Year's Eve, 11 games into her third active season with the women's basketball team.

There have been 53 men's and women's players at Stonehill who have scored at least 1,000 points, and two of them are named Simonds.

Charlie Simonds, a member of the school's Athletic Hall of Fame, finished with 1,011 points in three varsity seasons and his daughter, Kelsey, is at 1,172 and counting.

The Middleboro resident and former Cardinal Spellman High standout will add to that total in the NCAA Div. 2 East Regional that begins tonight in Philadelphia. Stonehill opens with The College of Saint Rose of Albany, N.Y., at 6 p.m.

Simonds figures to be getting a few hundred more points when she returns to the Skyhawks for the 2009-10 season after sitting out her sophomore year due to a foot injury.

Having a father and daughter eclipse 1,000 points at the same college is a rarity, but the Simonds' family is well represented in the Stonehill club.

"It's good. It means a lot,'' said Kelsey, a two-time All-Northeast-10 Conference first team selection. "It was kind of funny when I did it. That game I scored my 1,000th (against Dominican College), I finished with his exact point total.

"All the fans in the stands were giving him a tough time about it, that I did it in 2 1-2 years and it took him all of his years. It really was funny.''

Charlie, a Bridgewater native who was also a standout at Cardinal Spellman before attending Stonehill, is pleased that his daughter is flourishing at his alma mater.

During the recruitment process, the father didn't nudge the daughter to his old school. Kelsey, who was sought after by some Div. 1 programs, weighed her options and felt Stonehill was the place for her.

"She made her own choice,'' said Charlie. "She had a lot of opportunities at a lot of different school. The last five schools it came down to were Holy Cross Siena, Hartford, Delaware and Stonehill, and then it came down to Siena and Stonehill.

"She looked at everything and liked Stonehill and figured it was close by. The reason she picked he school was it is the right fit and everything worked. I think it's great. I was very happy when she made the choice so that her family could get to see her play all the time.''

Kelsey, who is wearing No. 22 just like her father did at Stonehill, felt the school fit her needs academically and athletically.

"I knew the school well because my dad had gone there and when he coached me in AAU, we practiced at Stonehill,'' said Kelsey, who is back playing after breaking her right hand on Jan. 28. "My dad didn't put any pressure on me about Stonehill. The only thing he said was that he didn't want me to go to Bentley (the Skyhawks' chief rival).

"It helped that I was familiar with Stonehill. It is such a good school as far as academics, the tradition of the basketball program is great and it's right in my backyard.''

Charlie began coaching his daughter at a young age and knew that she had the instincts needed to succeed in the sport, not to mention the size.

Kelsey, who stands 6-foot-3 and leads the Skyhawks in rebounding and blocked shots, just kept getting better and better with each passing season.

"I knew she'd be a player,'' said the father. "She was always an unselfish player, too. When she was younger in the recreation leagues, she didn't care about scoring. She'd pass the ball. She was always looking to pass.

"You could see she had the knack for understanding the game. Some kids are just born with it. You can't teach instincts. She knows where to look to find an open kid.''

Kelsey, who has 661 rebounds and 176 blocked shots in 82 career games, credits her father for helping her during the formative year of her basketball playing days.

"He gave me a lot of court sense,'' said Kelsey, who was a Div. 2 All-America honorable mention last season. "I owe a lot to him. He was my coach in AAU since I was 10 years old. He was big on fundamentals. He'd teach us he basic things, how to keep the ball high on rebounds, how to finish down low, how to face up to the basket and get an open shot.

"My dad's always been there. He has missed just two games my whole college career. It means a lot. Scoring 1,000 points just like him means a lot because he taught me a lot of what I know.''

Charlie, who was on the freshman team his first year at Stonehill, worked his way on to the varsity and got his 1,011 points in three seasons.

"I never shot a lot outside,'' he said. "I got a lot of my points off rebounds, inside. I was OK at Spellman and I got to Stonehill and worked hard. I didn't have a lot of skills. I was a big kid and I worked my butt off to be able to play at the Div. 2 level.

"I tell Kelsey all the time that I didn't have the outside shot or the 3-pointer like she does. Then she tells me she did it as a junior. I'm proud of her. She battled injuries all the way through. She's a tough kid. I give her a lot of credit.''